Teresa Williams
THOMASVILLE — The Cairo City Council and the Grady County Historical Society are each getting some much-needed space with the recent start of a renovation project at the former Roddenbery Hardware Store.
The building, located on North Broad Street in downtown Cairo, is owned by the city and will be split between it and the society, officials said.
“We are in the process of developing a long term working agreement between the historical society and the City of Cairo for use of the city-owned building,” City Manager Chris Addleton said.
The city is going to use its space to put in new council chambers.
“Our council chambers on the second floor at city hall is not handicapped accessible and we have been looking at how to remedy that situation,” Addleton said. “We thought the best thing would be to put council chambers next door, on the first floor.”
Logan Lewis, project manager and board of regents member for the historical society, said this is a chance for the Grady County History Museum to expand. It is currently housed in the building adjacent to the old storefront.
“This other half will add more display area for the museum,” he said. “It will about double our space.”
Lewis said the building was gifted to the city by the Roddenbery family and the historical society will lease its half from the city.
The museum is housed in a building gifted from the Roddenbery family to Grady County, he said, and the society also leases that one.
The city worked with the historical society to get an estimate on the project, an expected $400,000 to be split 50/50.
Addleton said half the city’s amount was budgeted in the current budget cycle and the other half will be in next year’s budget.
Some funds were approved in the 2008 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to the historical society. The $200,000 was committed over six years.
Lewis said the society has also worked to raise money through fundraisers for the last several years.
“This is a city-historical society joint venture,” he said. “It is a nice arrangement we will have with the city.”
The renovation project is currently underway and is expected to be completed in late summer to early fall, officials said.
“The advantages of this project for the city are it solves an ongoing problem with council chambers and takes a previously deteriorating vacant building downtown in a prime location and makes it a nice, presentable, positive addition to downtown,” Addleton said.
